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Saturday, October 29, 2011

The Job Creators—II

The Invisible Hand (Out)

~I am a job creator.

But not one of the super-rich too paralyzed to hire or invest, supposedly because of oppressive taxes and regulation.

No, I mean I really create jobs, by founding new ventures, by investing in startup companies, and, as an executive, by growing opportunities from idea to revenue. Along the way value is built, customers are served, workers are hired, and taxes are paid.

I've been doing this for 18 years, and never once did I choose not to grow a business or hire a worker because the tax burden was too high or because the regulations were too onerous.

Or because I lacked some mythical "confidence" that we are told repeatedly is so lacking in the backbone of some of our big business brethren. It's not about taxes or regulation. It's about straightforward business calculations.

What keeps me from hiring more workers right now? Two things:

Persistently anemic customer demand. Consumers are hunkered down and working off debt. Businesses that serve consumers see less demand, and businesses that serve those businesses get weaker order flow in turn. Solving consumer debt is key, and tax schemes that do little (or worse) for all but the top earners will not fix the problem.

Shriveling access to capital. One of my companies, Enerdyne Solutions, has a solid payment history and is cash flow positive, yet Bank of America unilaterally decided to withdraw the company's entire revolving line of credit. Why? They won't say precisely, but curtailing small business lending is not why we've permanently enshrined such big banks as too big to fail with taxpayer-funded largesse.